A dental handpiece for use in cleaning and polishing teeth and other dental procedures may be adapted to receive a variety of attachments. For example, a prophylaxis angle, or prophy angle. The prophy angle (10) is attached to a dental handpiece by inserting the drive shaft into a chuck system such as a collet or other retaining means in the handpiece, for example, ISO 3964 locking system. In addition, the sleeve portion of the prophy angle may contain a slot adapted for receiving a standard positioning pin or finger on the handpiece. The extended slot permits the free end of the prophy angle to expand and prevents rotation. The chuck jaws hold the shaft in place and operatively couples the shaft to an electrical or air-driven motor inside of the handpiece. When an operator powers on the handpiece, the connected drive shaft of the prophy angle rotates and the driving gear intermeshes with the driven gear, causing the prophy angle to rotate along with an attached prophy cup.
Cordless dental handpieces for use in cleaning and polishing teeth and other dental procedures are generally configured to communicate with a selector module located proximate to the handpiece. The selector module communicates the selection of the handpiece to a foot pedal. The foot pedal may be capable of communication with more than one dental instrument, and must complete a handshake or confirmation of the received handpiece selection signal. The foot pedal then communicates control commands to the selector module, which commands are communicated to the cordless handpiece. The handpiece does not communicate directly with the foot pedal in such a configuration, because the ability of the foot pedal to control multiple instruments requires a discrete selection procedure before the foot pedal can communicate commands to the handpiece through the selector module.
Other cordless devices exist in which the cordless handpiece communicates RF signals directly with a dedicated wireless foot pedal. In such cases the foot pedal is configured to communicate exclusively with the cordless handpiece, in other words, the foot pedal cannot be used to control other dental equipment in the operatory.
What is needed is a cordless dental handpiece with capability of sending and receiving RF communications signals in a wireless communication system having a wireless foot pedal. What is also needed is an electronic circuit or circuit board for the cordless handpiece for facilitating such communication between cordless dental hygiene system components, such as the foot pedal and the various other dental operatory devices.